Janette Rivera

Administrative Assistant II
janette@ucf.edu

Francisca Yonekura, Ph.D.

Associate Department Head
francisca@ucf.edu
(407) 882-0025

As Associate Department Head at CDL, Francisca’s responsibilities encompass the areas of course and application development, instructional systems integrations, and R&D of emerging technologies to support online learning. She brings eighteen years of experience in instructional technology in higher education, military, and hospitality industry. Her research interests are immersive learning environments, game based learning, and emerging technologies for learning and innovation. Francisca holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction and an M.A. in instructional systems and technology. She has facilitated the procurement of patents, trademarks, and service marks for instructional web applications. Francisca is an awardee of the Innovator award for the Inaugural Excellence in Research & Innovation Cohort by UCF Office of Research and Commercialization. Francisca and her talented team of software and web developers have received many recognitions including the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies Outstanding Work award 2013, Davis Productivity Awards (2011, 2006, 2005) for their learning and business operations applications, and the Virtual Campus Tour Award October 2001.

Beth Nettles, Ph.D.

Manager, Learning Content Development
Beth.Nettles@ucf.edu
(407) 882-0479

As Manager for Learning Content Development, Dr. Beth Nettles has functional oversite of the Instructional Development (iDev), CDL Graphics, and Video@CDL teams at the Center for Distributed Learning (CDL). Beth has created a number of professional development resources designed specifically for faculty teaching online courses and managed the Teaching with Lecture Capture (TLC) courses. She routinely presents the work of CDL to colleagues at other institutions and at professional conferences. Dr. Nettles has also provided project management services for several university-wide initiatives such as UCF’s most recent learning management system migration (from Blackboard to Canvas), the Knights Online orientation to online learning, and the tactical implementation of UCF Online.

Beth has over twenty years of experience teaching programming, software applications, and web technologies in post-secondary education. Dr. Nettles holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology in Education from the University of Nevada, Reno; an MA in Instructional Technology and a BS in Business Administration from UCF.

Wendy Howard, Ed.D.

Program Director, Pegasus Innovation Lab
wendy.howard@ucf.edu
(407) 823-0460

Wendy joined the Center for Distributed Learning in July 2011 with a diverse background in both corporate training and higher education. In addition to her Doctor of Education degree in Instructional Design & Technology from UCF, Wendy has also earned a BA in Mathematics and Secondary Education and an MA in Corporate Communication & Technology from Rollins College. Her current research is focused on faculty development, digital learning in STEM disciplines, collaborative online learning and internationalizing the curriculum through technology. She also provides a practitioner’s perspective based on over twenty years of experience in both design and instruction.
As the program director of UCF’s iLab, Dr. Howard’s primary focus is to strategically align, promote, and provide project management support for initiatives that contribute to the lab’s mission to serve as an incubator for the next generation of digital learning by supporting faculty and staff in piloting, refining, and evaluating innovations that positively impact student success at scale.

Kerlene King

Manager, LMS Services
LMS Administrator Team Lead
lmsadmin@ucf.edu
(407) 823-4910
Kerlene King has a B.S. in Computer Information Systems, an M.S. in Management Information Systems and is a certified Project Management Professional. She has worked with the Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) for over 10 years as the team lead for the Learning Management System Administrators. Her duties include providing direction and support for the LMS team and Webcourses@UCF Support team, providing tier 2/3 support for the institution, working on projects to help extend the features of the LMS, and utilizing LMS data to assist in improving student success. With her wealth of knowledge and experience, Kerlene represents the university at various consortiums and co-facilitates meetings with peers at other institutions to share and learn best practices